North-Thailand

Hello everyone!

After our visit to Bangkok, we moved on to explore a new city. We had to cross Central-Thailand and also a big part of North-Thailand because we wanted to go from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. As we were moving closer to North-Thailand, we could see the landscape changing. There are a lot of hills and mountains here in Chiang Mai and also the weather is different, it’s not so hot as in Bangkok.

Chiang Mai is a very popular city among tourists because you can make a “jungle trek” that starts in Chiang Mai. There are a lot of temples and we also visited the evening market which is very beautiful because there you can find whatever you like.
Chiang Mai has been modernized very quickly the last years. However it’s the main centre for needlework, jewelry (especially silver) and wood carving, the city is not such a metropolis as Bangkok.

We had just arrived in our hotel, when we met some other Belgians, Maya and Nico. They have now been living in Thailand for 5 years and they invited us to their home to drink something and to give us some more information about Thailand. Of course, we couldn’t refuse this nice offer. Maya and Nico told us that Thailand is going to host the World Expo 2020. It’s one of the most prominent events for nations to promote their economic, social and scientific development. The preparations for the Expo will result in a better infrastructure and also more employment. According to Nico and Maya, we really have to come back in 2020 to see the changes.
At the end of the evening, we thanked them for the pleasant evening and we went back to our hotel.

On our second day in Chiang Mai, we really wanted to make a safari. We didn’t have a lot of time so we decided on making an organized one-day-safari. We saw a training camp for elephants, a garden full of butterflies and a nursery where they breed orchids.
After that, we made a tour on an elephant and a boat trip.
It’s was a very vibrant day but we will never see such a beautiful piece of nature again!

Today it’s the last day in Chiang Mai because tomorrow we have to leave. Before we leave Thailand, we are going to take a real Thai massage as there is an abundance of variety of massages in the streets of Chiang Mai. After the massage we will do some shopping and than we are going to prepare us for our departure.

Our next country on the list is China and we hope you will continue traveling with us by reading the blog!

Delphine Van Vooren

Sources:

http://www.greenwoodtravel.co.th/Thailand/reizen/chiangmai_dagtochten.php
http://www.tceb.or.th/world-expo-2020/index.php
http://www.greenwoodtravel.co.th/Thailand/reizen/chiangmai_dagtochten.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Mai